The fight never ends
by Rah101evilregal
Summary: One final shot was all Shepard needed to destroy the reapers. But when she had taken it she found herself waking up in a rather strange land that looked like something she had seen in the vids. Not knowing where she was in time or what happened to the reapers, she must find clues and put the puzzle back together.


_I don't know, I got bored._

Year: 2186

Location: citadel/catalyst

It was the last stand and Shepard knew that the only way to know that the reapers were defeated for sure was by destroying them. She was broken and bruised as she limped her way down the beam at the apex of the citadel that would allow her to destroy the reapers. Her back was hunched with her left hand pressed against her bleeding wound and right hand hanging low and bearing her pistol. She stopped midway as she scrunched her nose in pain and looked down to her left hand that had been pressed against her gaping wound. She blinked her eyes a few times as she started to see oily figures like the ones in her dreams and hear whispers from former comrades and enemies "Shepard, Shepard!" she shook her head as the voices continued and the oily shadows surrounded her. Then she saw Saren standing in front of her in the same state he was when she saw him on Virmire.

"No! You're dead!" She yelled at him "I..I made sure of it"

"you have seen the visions from the beacon Shepard." He replied "You, of all people, should understand what the reapers are capable of. Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt. Do not sacrifice everything in the name of petty freedoms. The Protheans tried to fight and they were destroyed. Trillions dead. But what if they had bowed before the invaders? Would the Protheans still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction?"

"NO!, NO!" She yelled as the visions started to eat away at her fears, that they could be right and that everything she has done could be in vain.

(Illusive man) "And what about the rest of humanity? Your ideals have cost us more than you could imagine. The technology in that base could have secured human dominance in the galaxy. Against the Reapers and beyond."

"Go to hell!" Shepard spat

"Don't turn your back on me, Shepard!" The illusive man figure spat "I made you, I brought you back from the dead!"

"You're dead just as Saren is and the reapers are next!" She yelled.

(Sovereign) "Your words are as empty as your future I am the vanguard of your destruction"

"Sovereign failed!" She spat "and so will you! Harbinger, you will not break me!". Her chest was heaving as she brought both hands to her head closing her eyes and shaking her head while holding her breath. "The next few hours will decide the fate of everyone in the galaxy. Every mother. Every son. Every unborn child. They're trusting you, depending on you, to win them their future, a future free from the threat of the reapers!" She opened her eyes as she exhaled her breathe and straightened her posture before placing both hands on her weapon and aiming it at the reapers weak spot on the citadel before starting to fire.

(Saren) "the implants...sovereign he's to strong, I'm sorry, it's too late for me"

(Shepard) "It's not over yet, you can still redeem yourself"

(Saren) "Goodbye Shepard, thank you"

BANG! Shepard to another shot!

(Illusive Man) "I...they're to strong"

(Shepard) "you're stronger. Don't let them win. Break their hold. And don't let them control you."

"I tried Shepard"

BANG!

(Kolyat) "the prayer was not for him commander, he has already asked forgiveness for the lives he has taken. His wish was for you"

BANG! Another shot as Shepard increased her pace as she started to run down the beam and shoot.

(Shepard) "Looks like you found a little humanity, EDI, is it worth defending?"

(EDI) "To the death!"

BANG! It was nearly done only one more shot was needed.

(Kaiden) "don't leave me behind"

(Shepard) "no matter what happens, I love you, always"

(Kaiden) "I love you to, be careful"

She bit her lip as she charged and took her final shot. BANG! Then everything around her exploded.

Year:1930 Dragon

Location: Fereldon/Frostback mountains party camp

Shepard awoke gasping for air before sitting herself up to see that she was not in her armour but some robe like clothing, it was red with golden embroidery. Her heart started to quicken as she looked around at her surroundings to see that she was on some primitive cot made from wood with animal fur linen and it was the same for what she presumed to be a tent that she was in. 'Where the hell am ?I" she thought to herself as she stood up from the cot. The last thing she remembered was being on the citadel and shooting. She ran her right hand through her hair before exiting the tent. Her eyes widen at the sight before her, miles of grass stretched beyond the horizon, no tall skyscrapers nor wreckage from the reapers. Instead a small fire pit with three men, except for one of these men seemed to be rather large, like a krogan. A red headed female also joined them around the fire pit. And if the sight of green grass and rather primitive structures wasn't bizarre enough, the armour they wore was shiny and sounded like it was made out of metal. It looked like something she had seen in the vids. The commander carefully walked up to the campsite staying unnoticed until one of the armoured men with dirty blonde hair turned around. "Ah" he said "you're awake, you must be starving? Surely your starving? Have some rabbit" but Shepard did not reply instead she raised a single eyebrow at him "ok, to be fare it's more like charcoaled rabbit, but that's only because the warden said Morrigan didn't have to cook, so blame him"

"Don't listen to him" the other man said, but this man was not wearing armour like the other one instead he wore robes much like the robes Shepard was wearing but he had a stick on his back. While the robed man started to talk to Shepard the larger krogan like one wearing shiny metal armour drew what seemed to be a sword. "Where am I? What year is it and why do you have a stick on your back?" Shepard asked.

"A stick, did you here that warden a stick aha" the blonde man laughed.

"That is my staff" the one referred to as warden replied.

"Aha stick" the blonde man continued to laugh "as for where you are, you're in Thedas, Fereldon to be more specific and it is 1930 Dragon"

"Fereldon? 1930 Dragon?" things Shepard had never previously heard of.

"Yes, did you not here me the first time, THIS, IS, FERELDON, AND, THE, YEAR, IS, 1930, DRAGON" he said as if she was an idiot. Shepard did not have time for his games. She pinched the bridge of her nose before opening her mouth again "is he always like this?" Shepard asked.

"Yes" both warden and a red headed woman said as she took a step forward towards Shepard.

"Hey!" The blonde headed man replied.

"I don't have time for this" Shepard said as she threw her right hand down "tell me what happened to the reapers".

"Reapers what on earth are reapers"

"How could you not know what reapers are?" She said angrily "they are the thing trying to wipe us out!"

"The only thing that tries to wipe us out" the blonde haired man replied "are darkspawn".

"What are darkspawn?" the red head went to reply but instead she drew her weapons when she heard something scurrying in the bushes. The blonde also drew his weapon while the robed man took what Shepard thought to be a stick. "That, that is darkspawn" the blonde headed man said as vile mangled looking humans entered the camp. The other man and woman charged at the darkspawn while Shepard stood there unsure of what to do and it was at that moment she realised that she did not have her pistol on her. She sighed "there's always something" she thought to herself as she activated her tech armour and dual onmiblades. She charged against the darkspawn shredding them to pieces with her onmiblade and finishing them off with her heavy warp field. Once the darkspawn were dead the others turned their weapons onto her "what in Thedas was that?" The blonde asked.

"Yes, what was that?" a dark headed woman wearing what seemed like robes but more revealing asked "tis unlike any magic I have ever seen"

"I could ask you the same thing" Shepard replied as she stood in a defensive stance with her hands glowing blue in biotics "What was that coming out of your sticks?"

"There not sticks" the blonde replied.

"I think we all need to calm down" the one referred to as warden said.

"Yes calm down" the blonde one replied as if he was mocking him.

"Her skills are useful" the larger man said.

"Yes" Leliana said adding "she could help us". The one referred to warden then looked over to the one called Morrigan "her skills will be useful for the days to come".

"If you want, you can join us" warden said.

"What?" the blonde interjected "are we just going to add any strays that walk by"

"Well you're still here" the one called Morrigan quipped.

"Oh ha, ha, very funny!"

Shepard didn't see herself having much choice, after all she was in an unknown land.

"I don't really have much choice" she replied as she settled her biotics and deactivated her tech armour causing the others to sheathe their weapons. "I am commander Jane Shepard of the alliance and first human spectre but most just call me Shepard or commander" she said as she put her hand out. The warden placed his hand in hers before replying "it's nice to meet you, Shepard. I am Daylen Amell originally from the circle of magi and grey warden though most just refer to me as the warden". Shepard gave him a slight smile as she shook his hand "I will be needing my armour back". He bowed his head in agreement before Alistar opened his mouth "really? Have you seen the state it's in". There were still so many questions that Shepard need answered but making enemies wasn't going to help.

Location: Frostback mountains/Party camp

Shepard looked down at her heavily damaged combat hard suit that laid on a wooden table under one of the primitive tents. She activated her onmitool waving it over her suite using onmigel to repair it. Looking at the extent of the damage to her suit, she had no idea how she survived and hopefully this was just a bad dream from drinking to much alcohol in purgatory. And hopefully she was just passed out cold on Arias couch or even in the elevator. As she was repairing her hard suit the red headed girl referred to as Leliana walked inside the tent "what are you doing?" She asked. The girl seemed so innocent and so hopeful, it kind of reminded the commander of Liara when she first met her, back when they thought sovereign was just a ship. "I'm repairing my armour, " the commander replied as a model version of her armour popped up on her onmitool showing the extant of the damage of her armour "and hopefully I will be able to extract information from my armour and find out what happened".

"You can do all that with just that thing?"

The commander shook her head 'primitives' she thought finally knowing how Javik felt "yes" she replied as her onmitool bleeped. The red head was in awe, she had seen the extent of the damage on the armour and now, now it was just as if it was never there. She had never seen any magic that could do that. Shepard waved her hand and onmitool across her armour again, this time to extract information from the hard suits archives. She knew it would take a while for the onmitool to reconstruct the data but then she remembered she had installed Liaras VI glyph into her onmitool on Liaras request. If anyone could tell her where she was it was him, but first she decided to slap on her armour.

Shepard walked outside of the tent in her now repaired armour before looking down to her hands and flexing her fingers. 'Ah' she thought as she cracked her neck, 'that feels much better'. "That's, that's your armour" Leliana said, it was unlike any armour she had ever seen. Shepard gave the red head a small smile before gesturing to the red head to join her.

Alistar and the warden sat beside the campfire "what do you think of our new companion?" The warden asked.

"Hot but points off for attitude"

The warden shook his head before replying "Alistar"

"Ok" he said as he put his hands up in surrender "I think, I don't know what to think of her. She talks of these, reapers but we have never heard of them. Everything about her is strange, her magic although she claims it not be and her armour. You saw the state of that, I don't think even the best smiths in Orzamarr could repair that and not to mention it's material. Where is she from? She's even peaked Morrigans interest, so no I don't know what to think of her"

Leliana walked in toe of the commander around the bush lands of the camp "so" she said as a way to start a conversation "you said something about finding where you were". The commander smiled at the red head before waving her right hand and activating her onmitool and glyph.

"Greetings commander" the VI said as a small orb popped up on the commanders onmitool "it has been...data unrecoverable years and ...data unrecoverable days since your last activation".

"Data unrecoverable?" She said.

"This device has gone...data unrecoverable...cycles without maintenance".

"I guess that's bad" Leliana said.

Shepard cocked her head to the side before looking back down to glyph "being the shadow brokers VI, you would have a wide span of information on planets through out the galaxy"

"There are exactly..." But glyph was cut off the commander.

"You don't need to tell me how many, I just need you to tell me what planet, colony I'm on"

"Of course commander. Scanning local fauna and flora, please stay still while scanning is in process. Scan complete"

"Well?"

"The planet you are on commander is Earth"

"How is that possible?"

"While the results show earth, it also shows abnormalities"

"Abnormalities?"

"Yes commander"

"What abnormalities"

"I cannot describe it commander, it is like nothing listed in my archives"

"Then check it again"

"Checking archives, please wait. I'm sorry commander"

"Thank you glyph" Shepard said as she sighed.

"Logging you out"

"So what does that mean and what was that?" Leliana asked.

"That was glyph a VI, a virtual intelligence but that's not important"

"What about this earth thing?"

"It means what you call Thedas, Fereldon is what I once called earth, the two are the same. I just don't know what happened to it, to this place, to the reapers. I, I'm sorry I, I just need a moment alone"

"Of course" Leliana replied as she bowed her head and let the commander be. Once Leliana was gone she brought up the holo glyph had taken while they were on shore leave. Everyone was there, Wrex, Liara, Kaiden 'ah Kaiden' she thought, Samara, Tali, Garrus, Miranda, Jack, Traynor, Joker, kasumi, Zaeed. But of course there were those that weren't there, the ones who died fighting in the reaper war. Ashley who died on Virmire making sure that everything in Sarens base was destroyed and thane dying to save the council. Shepard sighed at the memory for all she knew everyone could be dead now.

Year: 2186

Location: citadel/catalyst

It was the last stand and Shepard knew that the only way to know that the reapers were defeated for sure was by destroying them. She was broken and bruised as she limped her way down the beam at the apex of the citadel that would allow her to destroy the reapers. Her back was hunched with her left hand pressed against her bleeding wound and right hand hanging low and bearing her pistol. She stopped midway as she scrunched her nose in pain and looked down to her left hand that had been pressed against her gaping wound. She blinked her eyes a few times as she started to see oily figures like the ones in her dreams and hear whispers from former comrades and enemies "Shepard, Shepard!" she shook her head as the voices continued and the oily shadows surrounded her. Then she saw Saren standing in front of her in the same state he was when she saw him on Virmire.

"No! You're dead!" She yelled at him "I..I made sure of it"

"you have seen the visions from the beacon Shepard." He replied "You, of all people, should understand what the reapers are capable of. Do not mire yourself in pointless revolt. Do not sacrifice everything in the name of petty freedoms. The Protheans tried to fight and they were destroyed. Trillions dead. But what if they had bowed before the invaders? Would the Protheans still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction?"

"NO!, NO!" She yelled as the visions started to eat away at her fears, that they could be right and that everything she has done could be in vain.

(Illusive man) "And what about the rest of humanity? Your ideals have cost us more than you could imagine. The technology in that base could have secured human dominance in the galaxy. Against the Reapers and beyond."

"Go to hell!" Shepard spat

"Don't turn your back on me, Shepard!" The illusive man figure spat "I made you, I brought you back from the dead!"

"You're dead just as Saren is and the reapers are next!" She yelled.

(Sovereign) "Your words are as empty as your future I am the vanguard of your destruction"

"Sovereign failed!" She spat "and so will you! Harbinger, you will not break me!". Her chest was heaving as she brought both hands to her head closing her eyes and shaking her head while holding her breath. "The next few hours will decide the fate of everyone in the galaxy. Every mother. Every son. Every unborn child. They're trusting you, depending on you, to win them their future, a future free from the threat of the reapers!" She opened her eyes as she exhaled her breathe and straightened her posture before placing both hands on her weapon and aiming it at the reapers weak spot on the citadel before starting to fire.

(Saren) "the implants...sovereign he's to strong, I'm sorry, it's too late for me"

(Shepard) "It's not over yet, you can still redeem yourself"

(Saren) "Goodbye Shepard, thank you"

BANG! Shepard to another shot!

(Illusive Man) "I...they're to strong"

(Shepard) "you're stronger. Don't let them win. Break their hold. And don't let them control you."

"I tried Sheperd"

BANG!

(Kolyat) "the prayer was not for him commander, he has already asked forgiveness for the lives he has taken. His wish was for you"

BANG! Another shot as Shepard increased her pace as she started to run down the beam and shoot.

(Shepard) "Looks like you found a little humanity, EDI, is it worth defending?"

(EDI) "To the death!"

BANG! It was nearly done only one more shot was needed.

(Kaiden) "don't leave me behind"

(Shepard) "no matter what happens, I love you, always"

(Kaiden) "I love you to, be careful"

She bit her lip as she charged and took her final shot. BANG! Then everything around her exploded.

Year:1930 Dragon

Location: Fereldon/Frostback mountains party camp

Shepard awoke gasping for air before sitting herself up to see that she was not in her armour but some robe like clothing, it was red with golden embroidery. Her heart started to quicken as she looked around at her surroundings to see that she was on some primitive cot made from wood with animal fur linen and it was the same for what she presumed to be a tent that she was in. 'Where the hell am ?I" she thought to herself as she stood up from the cot. The last thing she remembered was being on the citadel and shooting. She ran her right hand through her hair before exiting the tent. Her eyes widen at the sight before her, miles of grass stretched beyond the horizon, no tall skyscrapers nor wreckage from the reapers. Instead a small fire pit with three men, except for one of these men seemed to be rather large, like a krogan. A red headed female also joined them around the fire pit. And if the sight of green grass and rather primitive structures wasn't bizarre enough, the armour they wore was shiny and sounded like it was made out of metal. It looked like something she had seen in the vids. The commander carefully walked up to the campsite staying unnoticed until one of the armoured men with dirty blonde hair turned around. "Ah" he said "you're awake, you must be starving? Surely your starving? Have some rabbit" but Shepard did not reply instead she raised a single eyebrow at him "ok, to be fare it's more like charcoaled rabbit, but that's only because the warden said Morrigan didn't have to cook, so blame him"

"Don't listen to him" the other man said, but this man was not wearing armour like the other one instead he wore robes much like the robes Shepard was wearing but he had a stick on his back. While the robed man started to talk to Shepard the larger krogan like one wearing shiny metal armour drew what seemed to be a sword. "Where am I? What year is it and why do you have a stick on your back?" Shepard asked.

"A stick, did you here that warden a stick aha" the blonde man laughed.

"That is my staff" the one referred to as warden replied.

"Aha stick" the blonde man continued to laugh "as for where you are, you're in Thedas, Fereldon to be more specific and it is 1930 Dragon"

"Fereldon? 1930 Dragon?" things Shepard had never previously heard of.

"Yes, did you not here me the first time, THIS, IS, FERELDON, AND, THE, YEAR, IS, 1930, DRAGON" he said as if she was an idiot. Shepard did not have time for his games. She pinched the bridge of her nose before opening her mouth again "is he always like this?" Shepard asked.

"Yes" both warden and a red headed woman said as she took a step forward towards Shepard.

"Hey!" The blonde headed man replied.

"I don't have time for this" Shepard said as she threw her right hand down "tell me what happened to the reapers".

"Reapers what on earth are reapers"

"How could you not know what reapers are?" She said angrily "they are the thing trying to wipe us out!"

"The only thing that tries to wipe us out" the blonde haired man replied "are darkspawn".

"What are darkspawn?" the red head went to reply but instead she drew her weapons when she heard something scurrying in the bushes. The blonde also drew his weapon while the robed man took what Shepard thought to be a stick. "That, that is darkspawn" the blonde headed man said as vile mangled looking humans entered the camp. The other man and woman charged at the darkspawn while Shepard stood there unsure of what to do and it was at that moment she realised that she did not have her pistol on her. She sighed "there's always something" she thought to herself as she activated her tech armour and dual onmiblades. She charged against the darkspawn shredding them to pieces with her onmiblade and finishing them off with her heavy warp field. Once the darkspawn were dead the others turned their weapons onto her "what in Thedas was that?" The blonde asked.

"Yes, what was that?" a dark headed woman wearing what seemed like robes but more revealing asked "tis unlike any magic I have ever seen"

"I could ask you the same thing" Shepard replied as she stood in a defensive stance with her hands glowing blue in biotics "What was that coming out of your sticks?"

"There not sticks" the blonde replied.

"I think we all need to calm down" the one referred to as warden said.

"Yes calm down" the blonde one replied as if he was mocking him.

"Her skills are useful" the larger man said.

"Yes" Leliana said adding "she could help us". The one referred to warden then looked over to the one called Morrigan "her skills will be useful for the days to come".

"If you want, you can join us" warden said.

"What?" the blonde interjected "are we just going to add any strays that walk by"

"Well you're still here" the one called Morrigan quipped.

"Oh ha, ha, very funny!"

Shepard didn't see herself having much choice, after all she was in an unknown land.

"I don't really have much choice" she replied as she settled her biotics and deactivated her tech armour causing the others to sheathe their weapons. "I am commander Jane Shepard of the alliance and first human spectre but most just call me Shepard or commander" she said as she put her hand out. The warden placed his hand in hers before replying "it's nice to meet you, Shepard. I am Daylen Amell originally from the circle of magi and grey warden though most just refer to me as the warden". Shepard gave him a slight smile as she shook his hand "I will be needing my armour back". He bowed his head in agreement before Alistar opened his mouth "really? Have you seen the state it's in". There were still so many questions that Shepard need answered but making enemies wasn't going to help.

Location: Frostback mountains/Party camp

Shepard looked down at her heavily damaged combat hard suit that laid on a wooden table under one of the primitive tents. She activated her onmitool waving it over her suite using onmigel to repair it. Looking at the extent of the damage to her suit, she had no idea how she survived and hopefully this was just a bad dream from drinking to much alcohol in purgatory. And hopefully she was just passed out cold on Arias couch or even in the elevator. As she was repairing her hard suit the red headed girl referred to as Leliana walked inside the tent "what are you doing?" She asked. The girl seemed so innocent and so hopeful, it kind of reminded the commander of Liara when she first met her, back when they thought sovereign was just a ship. "I'm repairing my armour, " the commander replied as a model version of her armour popped up on her onmitool showing the extant of the damage of her armour "and hopefully I will be able to extract information from my armour and find out what happened".

"You can do all that with just that thing?"

The commander shook her head 'primitives' she thought finally knowing how Javik felt "yes" she replied as her onmitool bleeped. The red head was in awe, she had seen the extent of the damage on the armour and now, now it was just as if it was never there. She had never seen any magic that could do that. Shepard waved her hand and onmitool across her armour again, this time to extract information from the hard suits archives. She knew it would take a while for the onmitool to reconstruct the data but then she remembered she had installed Liaras VI glyph into her onmitool on Liaras request. If anyone could tell her where she was it was him, but first she decided to slap on her armour.

Shepard walked outside of the tent in her now repaired armour before looking down to her hands and flexing her fingers. 'Ah' she thought as she cracked her neck, 'that feels much better'. "That's, that's your armour" Leliana said, it was unlike any armour she had ever seen. Shepard gave the red head a small smile before gesturing to the red head to join her.

Alistar and the warden sat beside the campfire "what do you think of our new companion?" The warden asked.

"Hot but points off for attitude"

The warden shook his head before replying "Alistar"

"Ok" he said as he put his hands up in surrender "I think, I don't know what to think of her. She talks of these, reapers but we have never heard of them. Everything about her is strange, her magic although she claims it not be and her armour. You saw the state of that, I don't think even the best smiths in Orzamarr could repair that and not to mention it's material. Where is she from? She's even peaked Morrigans interest, so no I don't know what to think of her"

Leliana walked in toe of the commander around the bush lands of the camp "so" she said as a way to start a conversation "you said something about finding where you were". The commander smiled at the red head before waving her right hand and activating her onmitool and glyph.

"Greetings commander" the VI said as a small orb popped up on the commanders onmitool "it has been...data unrecoverable years and ...data unrecoverable days since your last activation".

"Data unrecoverable?" She said.

"This device has gone...data unrecoverable...cycles without maintenance".

"I guess that's bad" Leliana said.

Shepard cocked her head to the side before looking back down to glyph "being the shadow brokers VI, you would have a wide span of information on planets through out the galaxy"

"There are exactly..." But glyph was cut off the commander.

"You don't need to tell me how many, I just need you to tell me what planet, colony I'm on"

"Of course commander. Scanning local fauna and flora, please stay still while scanning is in process. Scan complete"

"Well?"

"The planet you are on commander is Earth"

"How is that possible?"

"While the results show earth, it also shows abnormalities"

"Abnormalities?"

"Yes commander"

"What abnormalities"

"I cannot describe it commander, it is like nothing listed in my archives"

"Then check it again"

"Checking archives, please wait. I'm sorry commander"

"Thank you glyph" Shepard said as she sighed.

"Logging you out"

"So what does that mean and what was that?" Leliana asked.

"That was glyph a VI, a virtual intelligence but that's not important"

"What about this earth thing?"

"It means what you call Thedas, Fereldon is what I once called earth, the two are the same. I just don't know what happened to it, to this place, to the reapers. I, I'm sorry I, I just need a moment alone"

"Of course" Leliana replied as she bowed her head and let the commander be. Once Leliana was gone she brought up the holo glyph had taken while they were on shore leave. Everyone was there, Wrex, Liara, Kaiden 'ah Kaiden' she thought, Samara, Tali, Garrus, Miranda, Jack, Traynor, Joker, Kasumi, Zaeed. But of course there were those that weren't there, the ones who died fighting in the reaper war. Ashley who died on Virmire making sure that everything in Sarens base was destroyed and thane dying to save the council. Shepard sighed at the memory for all she knew everyone could be dead now.


End file.
